Global setting for utf8-aware filehandle in Perl 5.8.2?

GregOrf

Using Teamsite 6.1 on Solaris 8.

I'm looking for a global setting for iwperl that can make a plain-vanilla filehandle, like this:

open WRITE, ">" . $vpath;

Always behave like a utf8-aware filehandle, like this:

open WRITE, ">:utf8" , $vpath;

We are currently testing an upgrade of Interwoven from 5.5.2 to 6.X (Currently testing with 6.1 but plan to eventually use 6.5 sp2).

The problem: the following perl code (which worked fine on TS 5.5.2 w/perl 5.005_03) reads from a UTF-8 encoded dcr and then overwrites the DCR with the modified XML. But the re-written XML is no longer well-formed due to utf-8 character issues.

open READ, $vpath;
my $xmlString = join("",);
close READ;

my $rootNode = TeamSite:CRnode->new($xmlString);

#some operations using the DCRnode...

$saveXML = $rootNode->get_dcr();

open WRITE, ">" . $vpath;
print WRITE $saveXML;
close WRITE;

The outcome appears to be that 'char-centric' utf8 is being written back to the file rather than 'byte-centric' utf8 (please see https://support.interwoven.com/kb/kb_show_article2.asp?ArticleID=51304 for more on this). Afterward, the xml can no longer be parsed.

The following change corrects the encoding issue:

open WRITE, ">:utf8" , $vpath;
print WRITE $saveXML;
close WRITE;

But we would rather find a global solution to the problem as opposed to making changes to every open statement in our code (dozens, probably 100+ instances would require updates).

We have attempted to set the environmental variable 'PERL_UNICODE' with the value 'SDA' but the results seem to be inconsistent at best.

Can anyone recommend some type of global solution to the problem?

Valentine

ummm ...

man perlrun

check out -C switch

so in the end, you can start your script with

#!/usr/bin/perl -w -CL

instead of

#!/usr/bin/perl -w





-C [number/list]
The "-C" flag controls some Unicode of the Perl Unicode features.

As of 5.8.1, the "-C" can be followed either by a number or a list of option letters. The letters, their
numeric values, and effects are as follows; listing the letters is equal to summing the numbers.

I 1 STDIN is assumed to be in UTF-8
O 2 STDOUT will be in UTF-8
E 4 STDERR will be in UTF-8
S 7 I + O + E
i 8 UTF-8 is the default PerlIO layer for input streams
o 16 UTF-8 is the default PerlIO layer for output streams
D 24 i + o
A 32 the @ARGV elements are expected to be strings encoded in UTF-8
L 64 normally the "IOEioA" are unconditional,
the L makes them conditional on the locale environment
variables (the LC_ALL, LC_TYPE, and LANG, in the order
of decreasing precedence) -- if the variables indicate
UTF-8, then the selected "IOEioA" are in effect

For example, "-COE" and "-C6" will both turn on UTF-8-ness on both STDOUT and STDERR. Repeating letters is
just redundant, not cumulative nor toggling.

The "io" options mean that any subsequent open() (or similar I/O operations) will have the ":utf8" PerlIO layer
implicitly applied to them, in other words, UTF-8 is expected from any input stream, and UTF-8 is produced to
any output stream. This is just the default, with explicit layers in open() and with binmode() one can manipu�
late streams as usual.

"-C" on its own (not followed by any number or option list), or the empty string "" for the "PERL_UNICODE"
environment variable, has the same effect as "-CSDL". In other words, the standard I/O handles and the default
"open()" layer are UTF-8-fied but only if the locale environment variables indicate a UTF-8 locale. This
behaviour follows the implicit (and problematic) UTF-8 behaviour of Perl 5.8.0.

You can use "-C0" (or "0" for "PERL_UNICODE") to explicitly disable all the above Unicode features.

The read-only magic variable "${^UNICODE}" reflects the numeric value of this setting. This is variable is set
during Perl startup and is thereafter read-only. If you want runtime effects, use the three-arg open() (see
"open" in perlfunc), the two-arg binmode() (see "binmode" in perlfunc), and the "open" pragma (see open).

(In Perls earlier than 5.8.1 the "-C" switch was a Win32-only switch that enabled the use of Unicode-aware
"wide system call" Win32 APIs. This feature was practically unused, however, and the command line switch was
therefore "recycled".)

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